STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. — Employees at a Goodwill in Stafford County, Virginia, had quite the visitor last week in a box of donations.

The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said that an employee at a Goodwill store found a snake in a box of books that was donated, WDCW reported.

Animal control’s captain went to the Goodwill to investigate, the news outlet reported. That was where he found a 4-foot-long basilisk snake trying to get away.

“Using his powers of persuasion, and a bit of Parseltongue,” the sheriff’s office said, according to WDCW.

The snake was safely removed from the box, the sheriff’s office said. No employees, deputies or snakes were harmed.

“With the rise in temperatures recently everyone is trying to beat the heat, even the local wildlife,” the sheriff’s office said.

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